Smart HDD is a fake disk optimization software and It was first introduced in December 2010. This virus is from the same guys who are behind System Check Virus. Recently a new variant of Smart HDD virus is being distributed once again which is not being detected by most antivirus products. Thousands of new computers are getting infected with this scam software and It is very hard to remove smart hdd virus from your computer.
Like its other variants, this rogue software enters in a disguised way to your computer without your knowledge or permission. This virus spreads via help of Trojans and various rootkits. If your antivirus software is not up-to-date or you are not using an antivirus software at all, such fake products can easily take over your computer. Once loaded in your computer, It will hide all the icons and start menu programs. It will also hide desktop wallpaper and replace it with a black wallpaper. While Smart HDD virus is active, If you’ll browse C:\ Drive, you won’t see any files there. You might get afraid that you’ve lost all files but that’s not true. Smart HDD virus has applied hidden attribute to all files so that you can’t view them and get afraid about your computer’s security. The one and only goal of this software is stealing money from victims using deceptive techniques.
Smart HDD is a shareware application and It tries to does a legitimate looking scan of your computer. If you’ve not seen such scams before, you might really believe the software and pull out your credit card too soon.We suggest that you don’t buy Smart HDD rogue at any cost and remove this fake disk defragmentation software from your computer as soon as possible. Here is a screenshot of Smart HDD Scam :
While this virus is active on your computer, It will continuously manufacture fake alerts in System Tray. These alerts will show like :Your computer is in critical state. Hard disk error detected.
As a result, it can lead to hard disk failure and potential loss of data. It is highly recommended to repair all found errors to prevent loss of files, applications and documents stored on your computer.Hard drive boot sector reading error
System blocks were not found
All the alerts displayed by Smart HDD are really threating and may sound legitimate to you but you must be aware that this software can’t protect your computer. The installer size of this software is around 300 KB and It is programmed by evil guys to show fake hard disk errors. These misleading tactics are just designed to make you pay for the software. Once you pay for the software, you won’t see any errors and this bogus software will stop showing fake alerts. This is how fake antivirus products behave and you shouldn’t throw your hard earned cash on these products. Read the removal guide below and remove this software quickly and easily.
How To Remove Smart HDD Virus
Smart HDD blocks all legitimate applications in your computer and floods your screen with fake security warnings. It will disable your antivirus software and won’t allow you to run any software which can help you with its removal. We’ve researched on various methods for removing Smart HDD and suggest these removal methods :
A) Automatic Removal Method – Guaranteed Removal Within Few Minutes
Smart HDD will prevent you from accessing anti-virus websites and also block Task Manger, Registry Editor and other useful tools. In a scenario like like, you can follow these steps :
1. Reboot your computer and repeatedly press “F8” key on your computer’s keyboard.
2. This will show Startup menu of Windows, please select “Safe Mode With Networking” and click OK button.
3. Once you are in safe mode, run Internet Explorer and download Spy Hunter by clicking the button below.
4. Scan your computer with Spy Hunter and It will automatically remove the rogue application. Here is a screenshot of Spy Hunter showing detection of Smart HDD :
Above removal steps are guaranteed to work as we’ve tested them in our malware research lab.
If you are having any problem in booting up your computer in Safe Mode, you can remove the virus in Normal mode as well following these steps :
1. If you don’t want to restart your computer, simply click on “Activate” button in Smart HDD rogue and enter these credentials :
Enter Email Address as : use any email address like abc @ abc.com
Enter Activation Key as : 15801587234612645205224631045976
2. After fooling the fake software with this registration key, run Internet Explorer and Download SpyHunter and install it in your computer.
3. Do a full scan of your computer with Spy Hunter and Smart HDD scam will automatically get caught.
After removing this rogue software with Spy Hunter, now you need to unhide all the files and start menu items. For this, you need to download this Unhide program (Free Utility from Bleeping Computer) and run it in your computer. This program will unhide everything and your computer will start behaving normally once again.
Update : Removal Video of Smart HDD virus from our malware research lab :
B) Manual Removal – Only Meant for experienced computer users
Manual Removal is a risky, tedious and incomplete way of removing the rogue software. To utilize this method, you must be highly skilled with computers otherwise you might just be able to removal the virus partially. At worst, you could damange your computer even further and for this reason, we don’t recommend this removal method to all computer users. Please follow this removal method only If you know what you’re doing :
1. Correct Startup Registry Entry of Rogue Software
Run Registry editor by clicking on Start—>Run, type “regedit” and click OK button. If you’re able to launch Registry Editor, you need to correct these registry entries. In case you are not able to access registry editor, we suggest that you try to do the removal in Safe Mode with Networking Mode. (Learn How To Edit Registry)
You need to remove this registry entry so that virus can’t load its malicious files at startup :
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run “[Strange File Name With Numbers]“
Delete a registry entry only If you’re sure about what you are doing. Delete a wrong registry entry may have adverse effect on your computer later.
2. Remove Smart HDD Executable files
After removing malicious registry entry, please remove the malicious files associated with this rogue. Find these files and delete them. (Learn How To Search and Delete Files)
%Temp%\.exe
%Temp%\.dll
%Temp%\dfrg
%Documents and Settings%\[User_Name]\Start Menu\Programs\Smart HDD
%Documents and Settings%\[User_Name]\Start Menu\Programs\Smart HDD\Smart HDD.lnk
%Documents and Settings%\[User_Name]\Start Menu\Programs\Smart HDD\Uninstall Smart HDD.lnk
Above steps should help you with removal of Smart HDD virus. If you find that manual removal steps aren’t working, you can try automatic removal method to remove the fake software from your computer.
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